Oak Park Heights inmate strangled prisoner with shoelace, charges say

Benjamin Beck was supposed to be Shane Cooper's protector at the maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights.

But when Beck discovered that Cooper was a convicted child rapist, he didn't have "a way out" and killed him, according to a criminal complaint.

The Washington County attorney's office has charged Beck with second-degree murder in Cooper's death.

Cooper and Beck were inmates at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights in December when Cooper was found strangled to death in his cell.

Investigators found Beck's identification card in Cooper's room and used surveillance footage to verify Beck had entered the room before Cooper was killed, according to the complaint.

Cooper, 30, was strangled with a shoelace, and his body was found under his bed.

Beck told investigators he had been Cooper's "protector" since Cooper arrived at the facility.

"When he found out why (Cooper) was incarcerated, (Beck) indicated to the agents that he could no longer be a protector of someone who had committed this type of crime and that (Cooper) did not give him a way out," the complaint said.

Beck said "this was a choice that he had made with no other inmates having knowledge of his actions," the complaint said.

Cooper was convicted in 2012 in St. Louis County of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for raping a preteen girl.

Beck, 40, was incarcerated in 2007 for felony burglary and aggravated assault.